Research

Our Research

The USC Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans & Military Families (CIR) conducts and disseminates educational and behavioral health research relevant to the long-term health and well-being of service members, veterans and their families. Our approach includes identifying critical and emerging issues, and fostering collaboration among our faculty and other experts who share a commitment to improving programs and policies that serve those who have served us.

Why Research Is Important

Research matters because the nation’s 23.8 million veterans matter — and so do their families and communities.

Statistics reveal the harrowing after-effects of war: More than 15 percent of returning veterans are unemployed, and 400,000 veterans experience homelessness during the course of a year. One in three veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is diagnosed with post-traumatic stress symptoms, and veterans kill themselves at a rate of one every 80 minutes. Returning service members face everything from martial problems to traumatic brain injury to substance abuse.

At CIR, researchers are exploring ways to address these and other problems through better policies and practices. Current research projects are tackling topics including motivating service members and their loved ones to seek needed health care, creating supportive schools for the children of military parents and evaluating government programs that provide direct services to veterans.

Real research leads to real, evidence-based solutions. And with more and more service members returning to their families and communities every day, the time for solutions is now.

Areas of Interest

• Develop training for behavioral health providers who treat service members and their communities
• Identify and overcome barriers to seeking care for service members and their communities
• Conduct clinical trials to determine the best treatment models for service members and their communities
• Develop conceptual models that guide CIR’s research
• Work with community service partners to conduct evaluation research
• Expand behavioral health research by collaborating with senior and tenured faculty researchers at the USC School of Social Work and beyond.